It is known that, currently, systems designed to pilot an airplane automatically are already installed on the great majority of civilian and military airplanes and make it possible, for example, to follow a pre-established flight plan, fly at a given altitude, follow a heading chosen by the pilot, and so on. These systems facilitate the work of the pilot. However, said pilot must always be the initiator of an airplane guidance task: it is in fact he who enters the flight plan into the airplane navigation system, and chooses the altitude, speed and other set points, that the automatic piloting systems must then follow. An interaction between the pilot and the automatic piloting systems is therefore necessary to fly an airplane until it has landed and come to a complete stop on a runway.
It may, however, happen, for example because of a failure of a system like the airplane pressurization system, that the crew is no longer able to pilot the airplane, particularly in the case of a loss of consciousness. In such a situation, the airplane is left to itself, and if none of the pilots regains consciousness in time, the airplane has a very strong probability of crashing, if no-one on board has sufficient capability to pilot it, whether manually or using the various automatic piloting systems (thrust control, automatic pilot, etc.).
Furthermore, if the pilots lose consciousness when the automatic pilot is engaged, the flight continues until all the fuel on board is consumed before the airplane crashes. This is because, even when the automatic pilot is engaged, actions on the part of the pilots are necessary to engage an automatic landing phase. Document FR-2 869 419 discloses a method and a device to assist in landing an aircraft on a runway.